Repetition at Dawn

How the value of repetition won out again

I often find it hard to photograph at dawn unless I have already scouted out the location in advance and have a clear idea what image I want to make. I think it’s the combination of darkness, the relentless tick tick of approaching light and the pressure to perform to order that feels so antithetical to how I make images. Plus I like my sleep!

This dawn shoot on a workshop was no different. The afternoon before we had visited the same location and I had made a couple of images that were only partially successful. In the end I set up a simple shot of a fence in the dunes with the technical camera (see the alternative image) with my good friend Dave Mead a few yards away also making a completely different image. With no directional light, black and white seemed in order and I was satisfied though not wowed by my enjoyable afternoon’s efforts.

The following morning we returned for dawn. I dragged the technical camera onto the beach and predictably could not find anything that attracted me enough to set up. After a couple of abortive setups I remembered the composition from the afternoon before and decided to give it a try. So I walked back up onto the dunes, relocated my composition in the dark and set up. It’s not every day you get to run the plane of focus right through the image from left to right (swing) and it was a fun setup in the wind.

As the light came up it was ultra bright and the workshop leader David Ward arrived and saw me trying to balance tripod, camera, cable release, focus, wind and lens shielding with my umbrella. He kindly switched into assistant mode and shielded the lens whilst I concentrated on making the main image. I love the feeling of light running through this image and it became one of my favourite images of the trip.